The Only Candidate for With A Record to Stand On

Judge Gregory Lasak is running for Queens District Attorney after a distinguished career in justice and law enforcement as a progressive Queens prosecutor and fair-minded Queens County State Supreme Court Justice.
A lifelong Queens resident, Greg grew up in Woodside, the son of a mechanic and a homemaker. He graduated from Holy Cross High School, Queens College, and New York Law School. He and his high school sweetheart, Patti, live in Richmond Hill and have three grown children; Daniel a New York State Trooper, Gregory an assistant district attorney, and Kristen a corporate attorney.
Fresh out of law school, Greg joined the Office of the Queens District Attorney and quickly rose up the prosecutorial ranks. At the age of 30, he was appointed Chief of the Homicide Bureau and then made Executive Assistant in charge of the Major Crimes Division. Major Crimes comprised four important bureaus: Homicide Trials, Homicide Investigations, Career Criminal Major Crimes and Special Victims. He created and supervised the first bureau devoted specifically to crimes of domestic violence. He spent countless hours as the legal adviser at crime scenes at all hours of the night and early morning.

Greg did his part to bring about the relatively crime-free New York City we know today. No other candidate for Queens DA can make that claim. Throughout his years in the DA’s office, Greg supervised the investigation of more than 2,500 murder cases. He prosecuted cop killers and the likes of the perpetrators of the Wendy's Massacre and the College Point Massacre, the largest mass murder in Queens history. These are accomplishments that none of his opponents can claim.

At the same time, Greg was a man whose sense of fairness was on display for all to see. He prosecuted five police officers indicted for using a stun gun to torture suspects in a police precinct.

He also recognized there were cases in which defendants may have been wrongly arrested, indicted and/or convicted of murder, rape, and robbery. His own efforts to right those wrongs eventually led to the release of almost two dozen men from prison and prompted Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project, an early leader in the fight for progressive reform of the legal system, to say of Greg, “[H]ere’s a prosecutor, a career guy, who is a true minister of justice. You need vigilant people like Greg Lasak — people who recognize it’s not about getting headlines, it’s about getting it right.”

That balanced approach remained Greg’s hallmark after he was elected to the bench in 2003 as a New York State Supreme Court Justice. His first court assignment was to Queens’ Drug Treatment Court where, long before it became popular, Greg was diverting low-level, non-violent offenders to treatment programs. Eventually, he rose to become Deputy Administrative Judge of Queens State Supreme Court and sat for many years in the homicide part, overseeing some of the county’s most high-profile cases, including the trials of Demetrius Blackwell, who was convicted of murder for shooting P.O. Brian Moore, and Oscar Morel, who was found guilty of murdering Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee.

Greg completed a 14-year term and was re-elected in 2017 for a second 14-year term before stepping down last September to launch his campaign for Queens District Attorney.

It is because of his unique perspective as a prosecutor and a judge that Greg Lasak is running for Queens District Attorney.

Judge Lasak says: “The District Attorney is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is ultimately responsible for all legal decisions. The next Queens District Attorney must make needed reforms while safeguarding our families from the scourge of violent crime. Above all, the next District Attorney must fundamentally ensure equal justice.”

“You cannot make fairness and equal justice your priority when you haven't the faintest idea where to start. A term-limited politician who has never practiced criminal law and decides on a whim one day to run for this position selfishly puts justice at risk for his or her own political gain. On-the-job training is not an option. I stand fully-qualified and ready to serve right now.”